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authorHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-12-03 22:23:40 -0500
committerHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-12-03 22:23:40 -0500
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watched the Reagan lecture
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+The Presidency of Ronald Reagan
+"It's Morning Again in America."
+- Developed his personal brand on the 80s
+ - The country was in trouble, brought down by leaders brought down
+ by nagging dilemmas.
+ - "Rescue America" and restore confidence.
+ - Emulated FDR's
+ - Used the power of the presidency to gut the welfare state
+ - Excoriated the Great Society (welfare recipients are too
+ lazy to get a job, lambasted the Soviet Union)
+ - Anti-environmentalism
+ - Gorbachev in the Soviet Union helped dissolve Am-Sov conflict.
+ Reagan took credit.
+ - Believed that slashing taxes would make America rich. Also wanted
+ to "crush the enemy"
+ - Treated as an essentially a religion; treated as infallible
+ despite any possible contradictory evidence
+
+Questions
+- What factors led to the election of Ronald Reagan and the rise of the
+ conservative movement?
+- What is "Reaganomics?" What were its effects on American society and
+ the economy?
+- How did Reagan's foreign policy toward the Soviets help end the Cold
+ War?
+
+- Reagan was not a deepthinker. He was a patriot.
+ - Son of Irish-Catholic shoe salesman. Devout bible
+ - Won a football scholarship to a small college in Illinois during
+ the Great Depression. Washed dishes to make money in college.
+ - Worked as a sportscaster before Hollywood, served 3yrs in the army
+ in World War, making training films.
+ - Was a Democrat at the time.
+- Delivered a speech on national television in support of Barry
+ Goldwater
+- Won Governor of Calif. in 1966
+- Part of his popularity came from his great ability as a speaker
+ (baritone voice and a wealth of entertianing stories)
+ - New Right was behind Reagan. Migration to the Sun Belt.
+ - Property taxes were reduced in California. Overwhelming majority
+ of voters agreed to Prop 113 to slash property taxes by 57%, also
+ making it harder to increase taxes later on.
+ - The idea spread across the nation. The New York Times called
+ it the modern Boston Tea Party, key in support for
+ conservative support for politicians like Reagan.
+ - Megachurches crusading against liberalism at home and
+ communism abroad sprung up.
+- Reagan succeeded because he focused on a few main points:
+ - Reducing inflation, taxes
+ - Anti-Soviet foreign policy.
+ - Shrewd negotiator with congressional leaders and foreign heads of
+ state. Realized that running a democracy required compromise.
+ - Lots of optimism like FDR gave people a renewed sense of
+ confidence and purpose. "You have every right to dream"
+- First thing Reagan did was freeze federal hiring. Replaced Truman in
+ the cabinet room with Coolidge (super anti-gov president). Reagan
+ believed government was the problem.
+- 6 shots fired at Reagan before election. Increased support for him by
+ electorate.
+
+Insiders at Reagan's White House realized he remained detached from
+details of the decisionmaking process.
+ - Very relaxed, buoyant, elegant.
+ - Read newspapers over breakfast, went to his office at 9, an hour
+ of personal time, lunch, watched television. Whenever possible,
+ his schedule conduced to a positive, upbeat atmosphere.
+ - Reagan appointed officials who would help him succeed.
+ - David Gergen, office of WH Communications, worked to influence
+ news coverage of the WH.
+ - He and other aides operated under the premise that the press's
+ portrayal of the president would strongly affect public
+ opinion of the president.
+ - Gergen was proactive about establishing a "line of the day," a
+ single point of discussion with reporters. Said they "had to think
+ like a television producer."
+
+Reaganomics
+- Reflected two beliefs of Reagan:
+ - Least gov is best gov
+ - Give economic power to the private sector for sustained prosperity
+- David Stockman, not a cabinet member but head of OMB, masterminded
+ Reaganomics.
+- 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act
+ - Aug 1, 1981, Reagan signed economic recovery tax act, cutting
+ personal income taxes by 50%, lowered max tax rate from 70% to 50%
+ - "Common sense economic plan."
+ - Theorists call it "Supply Side" economics
+ - Proposed solution to stagflation, believing that the rich would
+ spend their money on goods, and the spending would "trickle down"
+ benefits to the lower classes.
+ - Did not work as planned, causing the Recession of 1981-1982 and
+ increasing the federal budget deficit.
+- Reduced Social Security and Medicare, the most expensive and most
+ popular fed. social programs to meet the budget deficit.
+ - According to Stockman, Reagan was too kind and gentle to make the
+ necessary cuts to balance the budget.
+ - Also continued subsidies for big corps. Reagan never fully
+ dismantled federal programs.
+ - Also made massive increases in military spending, @ $1.2T over
+ three years.
+ - The recession also had huge unemployment levels
+ - "Revenue increases" (tax lifting) were pushed by his aides,
+ including Stockman, but the Recession continued.
+ - Dems picked up 21 House seats.
+ - By summer 1983, economy started to recover because of increased
+ spending, lower interest rates, and partially because of lower tax
+ rates.
+ - Reaganomics did not help balance the budget.
+1986 Tax Reform Act
+ - Top tax rate 50% -> 28% and bottom 11% -> 15%.
+ - Fed budget deficit went from $90B to $283B
+ - America had to borrow and raised interest rates to attract
+ capital
+ - Foreign money flooded into America, and the dollar rose
+ dramatically.
+ - Cheapened imports, forcing American companies to relocate
+ outside the country.
+ - Largest creditor nation -> largest debtor nation. Trade imbalance
+ of $170B by 1987.
+- More jobs created in 1980s than lost, but half of those lost were in
+ high-wage industries and half of those gained were below the poverty
+ line.
+ - Exacerbated growing wealth inequality, a two-tiered society.
+
+Reagan and Foreign Policy
+- Reagan's Foreign Policy was very supported by the public.
+- Very anti-communist interventionist foreign policy
+ - Reagan Doctrine wanted to roll back communism in the "third world"
+ - Gave military support to freedom fighters in Angola, others
+ - Military advisers and millions of dollars to reactionary
+ regime in El Salvador and overthrow of Sandinistas by Contras.
+- Reagan believed the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons would be
+ achieved by "peace through strength."
+ - Believed a strong defense was the best deterrent to aggression
+ - Secretly authorized contact with Soviet leadership, but acted like
+ a hawk in public about the Soviets. Denounced the "evil Empire."
+- Reagan escalated the arms race with the announce of the Strategic
+ Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") to intercept and destroy missiles in
+ flight before they hit the US.
+ - Skepticism by the media, gov officials, and scientists
+ - But Congress eventually allocated $30B to the program, but SDI,
+ although never implemented, when matched by the Soviets, helped
+ bankrupt the country.
+
+1984 Presidential Election: Reagan vs Walter Mondale
+- Mondale took the midwestern ethos of hard work and public service.
+- Jimmy Carter's runningmate. Took an active and daily role in all major
+ decisions.
+- Mondale had a chance of winning if he could capitalize on Americans'
+ sense of fairness.
+ - Said proposals were a Trojan Horse for lowering taxes on the
+ wealthy
+ - Redistribution of wealth and power from gov to private, poor to
+ rich, workers to capitalists
+ - Reagan claimed to believe in conservative egalitarianism
+ - In hindsight, there is no way anyone could have beaten out
+ Reagan. The economy was booming, unemployment was low, Moscow
+ Olympics boycott gave Reagan a ton of pub support.
+ - Mondale lost in a landslide, only getting Minnesota.
+- The election was about traditional values and America's opinion of
+ itself as well as the economic status of the country
+- There were growing questions about foreign policy.
+- Reagan said, "we brought America back" as his campaign slogan.
+- Americans wanted to celebrate the new era of "good feelings."
+
+War in Nicaragua
+- Dictator in Nicaragua overthrown by leftwing uprising of Sandinistas.
+- Reagan suspended foreign aid to Nicaraguan gov't and authorized covert
+ war to bring down Sandinistas in favor of the Contras.
+- Reagan's justification of intervention was to prevent the growth of
+ communism.
+- Support of contras was unpopular because of a fear of another Vietnam.
+ - Boland Amendment passed by Congress banned CIA and DOD from
+ funding the Contras.
+ - National Security Council Advisor John Poindexter and Oliver North
+ authorized plan to fund the Contras.
+ - Authorized arm sales to Iranian government. Hostile to the US,
+ but Reagan was critical of Carter's stance on the gov.
+ - US asked Iran to pressure Lebanon to release American
+ hostages kidnapped by Hezbollah, paramilitary group funded
+ by Iran.
+ - North overcharged Iran for the weapons and used the extra
+ money to supply the anti-Communist forces with arms and
+ supplies
+ - Trading arms for hostages were problematic, since more
+ American hostages were taken by Hezbollah when one was
+ released. This was in secret because Reagan said he
+ wouldn't negotiate with terrorists.
+ - Scheme unraveled when American cargo plane for the Contras
+ crashed in Nicaragua. Three died, one captured. Journalists
+ revealed the scandal.
+- John Tower's investigation gave the administration a slap on the wrist
+- John Walsh, investigator under multimillion, contradicted Tower
+ investigation by concluding that it was directed by the top of the
+ Reagan administration.
+ - Congress, at the time, found no smoking gun that Reagan knew about
+ or authorized the Iran-Contra Deal.
+ - North got limited protection from prosecution and took a
+ melodramatic tone.
+- Congress, Speaker of House decided not to impeach Reagan because
+ Reagan would be treading on thin ice: either Reagan authorized his
+ admin or he couldn't control it.
+ - Ruined his public image. Investigations led to 6 indictments.
+ - Only John Poindexter received a jail sentence---6 months for
+ obstruction.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War
+- Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Reintroduced detante to reduce arms
+ and focus on economy. Glasnost, openness, was a better form of
+ "superpower cooperation" that Reagan wanted.
+- Reagan originally acted like the threat of Communism was to blame for
+ every problem of the United States.
+ - Gorbachev was willing to consider mutual reductions in nuclear
+ weaponry.
+- INF Treaty was cuts to nuclear weapons and destruction of various sys.
+ - Did not end the Cold War, but it helped
+- Soviet Union announced it would stop Brezhnev and allow satellite
+ Communist states to self-determine.
+ - Bruce Springstein performed in East Berlin, requested by the East
+ Berlin to boost their image.
+ - "I'm not here for any government. I'm here for you to play
+ rock and roll."
+ - The Wall topples, but this is just the beginning.